So, in my last entry, I suggested that I would soon reveal the identity of the one we call Sparkle. This is Sparkle:

As you can probably see, she is a mourning dove and she is about as un-sparkley as anything you could possibly imagine. A better name might be "Matte" or "Taupe". However, since my daughters named her, Sparkle it is. We discovered Sparkle last week, but it seems that she has been occupying the attic window across from my desk for over a week now. I guess I was too engrossed in my work to notice the nest-building phase of things. I did hear some coo-ing, but I didn't really, you know, investigate. The next thing I knew, I saw this bird sitting on a nest. I called up the girls, who selected the name and the rest is history.